$4 Billion Founder: Should You Leave Big Tech or Ride It Out?

Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale Guest Links: https://www.waterfall.net (Mention this podcast for $100 credit when you book) https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophe-bisciglia-745aa810 🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=christophe_bisciglia-sponsored For the extended conversation, become a member to this channel or join my Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/alifeengineered/p/4-billion-founder-should-you-leave?r=2tt9s7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true 00:00 Getting hired at pre-IPO Google with just an undergrad degree 03:36 Would you call early Google a startup or corporate? 04:44 The 20% time loophole 11:19 "Start a company, but don't quit yet" 13:50 Building Cloudera without actually having a product 16:33 The certification that became valuable by accident 20:06 Getting forced out when the company outgrows you 26:04 Why taking $23M at high valuations was a mistake 29:30 Venture debt is basically a mob loan 32:24 Laying off 40 people in one day 36:04 "Do you think you're a good CEO?" 38:15 Selling Cloudera stock at $4B valuation 41:06 "I wanted to work on something I gave a shit about" 47:31 Why you should work at Google/Amazon first, then leave 52:31 Using AI to program again and automate the hotel